Chapter Seven

An Unknown Voice

(Leigh and Meg look through a magazine.)

Leigh: I like that one!

Meg: Oh, how about this one?

Leigh: And this one!

(RAEB, Emma, and Sarah walk in.)

RAEB: What are you two doing?

Leigh: Looking at houses in Charleston.

Emma: Why?

Meg: Because Leigh's going to buy me a house there when she is rich and famous.

Leigh: Buy YOU a house? I was going to buy myself a house!

Emma: (points to magazine) I like that house!

Sarah: (gasps) It's over a million dollars! You'll never be able to afford that!

Meg: Shoot. Why can't I think of a novel so I can buy a nice house in Charleston? Leigh can!

Leigh: Well, maybe you can sell your Meg Sarentis stories to some publishing company.

Meg: That'd be so awesome if other people didn't already own the GMD characters. I hate my life!

RAEB: Delusional.

Basil and Dawson did not get back until two thirty that morning. I was sleeping on an armchair in front of Mrs. Butler's room, clutching a dagger in my hands.

Basil was surprised at this. He reached over and pulled the dagger out of my hands.

Then he winked mischievously at Dawson. He crept up to me.

"Megana... wake up...

"Hmmm..." my eyelids fluttered a bit.

"Meg..."

"Leave her alone, Basil. She's tired."

"Hah! She'll be furious with me in the morning if I don't wake her up now."

"Five more minutes..." I muttered.

"'What light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Megana is the sun!'"

"Wha'?" I opened my eyes and blinked a few times. "Basil of Baker Street, stop mocking me."

"Me? Mock you? Never!"

Dawson rolled his eyes. "I'm leaving."

"No, please don't. Basil's being silly. Who knows what he might say or do?"

Dawson chuckled. "That's your fault."

"Obviously I am a bad influence on you," I yawned as Dawson went into the study.

Basil knelt down on the ground and took one of my hands. "Meg, you're the reason men write poems and go to war!"

"All right, who are you and what have you done with Basil?"

"Well, I'm at war with Ratigan right now."

"But that didn't start because of me."

Basil straightened himself up. "All right, ignore the flattery I am trying so hard to bestow upon you."

"I'm tired!"

"Obviously," Basil said, twirling my dagger between his fingers. His good humor had diminished.

My hands flew to my mouth. "Oh... Basil, it's not what you think!"

"I beg your pardon? Pray tell, what exactly am I supposed to think about this?"

I started to sweat. "Ratigan hasn't threatened us," I said in a small voice.

Basil seemed exasperated. "Then why are you in a chair in front of Mrs. Butler's room with a dagger?" I opened my mouth to speak. "And don't tell me you were sleepwalking!"

I shut my mouth. Then I stood up and brushed past him. "I wasn't going to say that."

"Then what were you going to say?"

I looked out one of the hall windows and took a deep breath. "Basil do you remember that Arlen Gillespie fellow? The one that works for the Yard, who we met at Le Jardin?"

"Yes," Basil said shortly. "He came here while we were gone, didn't he?"

"Well... yes and no. He was on the ivy by the balcony, looking for clues. He had found a piece of cloth that he thought belonged to the kidnapper. But then he... he showed me his gun and told me to keep mum about it."

Basil took me by the shoulders and turned me so I was facing him. "He threatened you?"

"I don't know!"

"Oh God Meg!" Basil said more in fury than in shock.

"Calm down! Basil, you're scaring me!"

Basil gripped my shoulders. "You were scared when he threatened you. That's why you were sleeping with a dagger."

"Basil, I don't know if it was a threat. He just showed me his gun and said something like: 'No one else needs to know about this.'"

"If it was not a threat, then what was it?" Basil said, somewhat calmer.

I shook my head, unable to answer. "You're the smart one here. You tell me."

Basil heaved a deep sigh. "Maybe the Yard is going to extremes to try to beat me to the culprit so they can get all the credit."

"They wouldn't do that... would they?"

"There is also the possibility," Basil continued, "that Gillespie doesn't even work for the Yard, but is instead working for the kidnappers, making sure that we're concentrating more time on tracking the Eye of Diom than the kidnappers."

"And I made friends with their agent."

"You caught him in the act of taking evidence. Perhaps we have found our enemy."

I shivered. "Do you really think so?"

"I said perhaps. For all we know, Arlen Gillespie could be trying to help us."

I huffed.

Basil put his arm around me and started to lead me to the study. "Just tell Dawson or I if Gillespie pops up again. For now we must concentrate on the next clue."

"You found it? Where?"

"At Sophia Schintzhofer's grave, of course."

"Where is it now?"

"Dawson has it."

"Shouldn't we wake up Mrs. Butler?"

"Let her get some sleep."

Basil broke away from me as soon as he opened the study door. He seemed very bashful about showing any affection for me even in front of Dawson.

"Are either of you ready to solve this clue?" the doctor asked hopefully. "Because I am baffled."

Basil and I leaned over the piece of paper. It read:

I sing my song for many things

I announce new birth to this world,

My voice calls for all to gather

To a marriage of a man to a girl,

My voice is loud and clear,

I sing glory and joy and praise

But I also announce the death of a loved one,

As well as any holiday.

For happy times, for sad times

For times to celebrate,

My tone will never cease

As long as there's someone to create it.

Look no further than home.

There were no numbers to this one. I-I-M-T-M-I-B-A-F-F-M-A-L didn't even make sense. What was Thomas Butler talking about?

We were at it all night. Basil tried scrambling letters around, walking around on the grounds, even searching the study some more. We knew this riddle was telling us the answer. If only we could see it!

Basil took out his watch and grimaced. He pulled open the curtains of the study, revealing a gray dawn.

"Good morning everyone," he muttered.

Dawson groaned. "What if we can't figure out the next clue in time?"

"We have until ten tonight," the detective replied.

Dawson shook his head. "But Basil, we also have a train ride."

"Maybe we can negotiate with the kidnappers if we can't figure it out," I suggested.

"If Ratigan or someone like Ratigan is behind this, then that will be next to impossible."

Mrs. Butler burst into the room. "Why didn't any of you wake me up?" she demanded, her voice shrill. "Did you find the next clue?"

"Yes," we chorused rather unenthusiastically.

Dawson pushed the riddle towards the agitated woman. She took it and read it.

"What does it all mean?" she asked.

Basil tried to give her a sympathetic look. "I wish we could tell you."

"It's here though, at the house. Who sings? I can't sing. Neither can my husband. My children sing their little songs, but surely he can't mean them. One of the servants? No... 'Look no further than home?'"

She went to a desk and pulled out some blueprints.

Basil and Dawson looked over her shoulder as she began to muse at them.

"Why didn't I think of it before?" Basil exclaimed.

Mrs. Butler seemed bewildered. "Think of what?" she asked.

"May I?" But before she could answer, Basil began to flip through the blueprints. Dawson grabbed a few and looked through them himself. I took one from Basil and looked at it. It was a blueprint of the manor. Would we find what Butler was talking about here?

"Basil!" Dawson called out. He placed a blueprint on top of the others scattered around the desk.

I gasped.

A slow smile spread across Basil's face. "Why didn't we think of it before?" he said, repeating his own words. "Thomas Butler, you are a brilliant man indeed!"

(Meg, Leigh, JWJ, RAEB, Emma, Lizz, and Sarah walk down a street in Charleston.)

Meg: (points) Aw, I want that house!

JWJ: Don't tell me we came all this way to go house shopping. You're not even 18 yet! You can't legally buy a house!

Meg: I know that. That's why I can still fantasize about owning a million dollar house in South Carolina.

Leigh: Hey, there's this cool courtyard on Church Street where pirates used to hide. Do you guys want to see it?

Emma: Sure!

(They continue walking until they reach a small wooden gate. They slip through and enter a courtyard, where a stone head is spouting out water into a fountain.)

Sarah: This is so cool!

JWJ: It's so dark here.

RAEB: It's nine at night. What do you expect?

JWJ: Well, what's that dark shadow over there?

Meg: That's a separate entrance to the courtyard.

JWJ: If I didn't know any better, I'd say that there was someone right there.

(The dark shadow moves.)

Everyone: AHHHHHH!!!

Emma: Pirates!

(Lizz shines a flashlight at the shadow, revealing...)